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Sheryl Turner is one of the residents opposed to dezoning the land. She lives directly behind the proposed store site.
Grocery store plan riles homeowners
Kirkland project hinges on dezoning land
Julia Kilpatrick and Giuseppe Valiante
The Gazette
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Sheryl Turner is one of the residents opposed to dezoning the land. She lives directly behind the proposed store site.
Modest homes with well-kept lawns and backyard pools line Fiddler’s Green and Lacey Green Sts. in Kirkland, but behind the picture windows and two-car garages, the residents are preparing for battle.
“People were in a fury here because they just built the Rona,” said Jordan Turner, 27, referring to the building-supplies store that looms just beyond his back fence.
But it’s not the Rona his family is concerned about – even though his mother Shirley said trucks sometimes wake her up at 4:30 a.m. and Rona workers can peer into their backyard from the rooftop of the store.
No, the Rona is old news.
It’s the 90,000-square-feet of trees and green space the Turners live next to that could disappear that has got them – and many other residents – worried.
The Metro grocery-food chain bought the land, which is zoned residential, and another 90,000-square-foot commercial plot adjacent to it to build a 43,000-square-foot store.
“We live in a green space. We all bought (our houses) knowing it was residential,” Shirley Turner said.
Since mid-June, residents living near the site banded together to petition the town not to go through with the store’s application for commercial zoning.
Kirkland’s director general, Joe Sanalitro, said the ultimate decision lies in the hands of the residents.
“The acquiring of the land was done by Metro (at) their own risk. If the zoning doesn’t go through, then the project is rejected,” he said.
Director of development for Metro Pierre Rhéaume said he asked the town to facilitate a meeting with residents so he could assuage their concerns.
Sanalitro said the town council discussed the suggestion at a private caucus meeting Monday. The time and date of the meeting has yet to be decided.
Rhéaume said the plans for construction meet all the requirements of the town of Kirkland, which include the concealment of loading docks, fencing and a double row of trees to separate the store from residents’ properties.
Sanalitro said the town should consider the benefits the $12-million project could bring to the community as a whole, namely, the potential $250,000 in annual tax revenue.
But he added: “Our obligation as a city is to look out for the residents ... and that we’re not affecting their lives in a negative way.”
If the registration for commercial zoning passes and the project is still rejected by residents, there will be a referendum.
Rhéaume said he “completely agrees” with the rules. He added that the company has not decided what to do if residents reject the plans.
Only residents who have initially petitioned the city against the zoning plans can vote, and the decision is final, Sanalitro said.
That’s good news for Shirley Turner, who said the rezoning of the Rona site “happened under our noses.”
“We’ve learned a lesson from Rona and we’re not going to let it happen again,” she said.
Grocery store plan
It's said that history repeats itself, and so the lessons we learn from that can only mean that this new store plan will be railroaded through just like the Rona store was--despite the wishes to the contrary by the citizens of both Pierrefonds and Kirkland.
Money talks, and the tax revenues cited by the municipality seem to be more important in the long run, regardless of traffic concerns or quality of life. Thus, it seems highly likely that this project will get the nod once zoning requirements get changed, and I'll be surprised if Metro only invested in real estate for the purpose of speculation!
Bill Wilkat
Pierrefonds